Homeless Completely Ignored at SXSW

Homeless Hotspots, a short marketing gimmick, a quick phrase describing a fun place to get tech services, and a brand new way to see homeless people. Six days ago the news broke that SXSW had a vender who was using human beings as a hip new marketing tool. The vendor claimed that the company was helping the homeless; but the homeless say otherwise.

At the ARCH Homeless Shelter I spoke to a woman who had been a part of the project. “I haven’t gotten the money they said I’d get:” She told me on a condition of anonymity (she said the shelter would punish her for speaking out against the city or SXSW), “They paid me twenty dollars for six hours work, said I would get paid later anymore that was coming to me. They didn’t say how they would decide if I got more or how they were going to find me.”$20.00 for six hours work is about $3.33 an hour, and in Texas the minimum wage is $7.25 an hour. If this is true, it means that this company was paying these people $3.92 less than the minimum wage.

Though parts of this story broke on monday, the homeless remain forgotten. For all the attention given by the media; neither the city, SXSW, nor most of the participants seem to care at all about the cities homeless. In downtown Austin revelers walk drunkenly past the homeless shelter, and more often than not completely ignore the many homeless people who are still sleeping on the concrete all around the edges of SXSW.

A homeless man I spoke to outside the shelter told me that he knew that in the long term South by Southwest would generate money for the city and that some of it would eventually filter into the shelter, but that SXSW was also doing nothing to assist the homeless community even as it displaced them.

Attempts were made to contact SXSW but no calls were answered or returned.

So I ask you, would it be too much for SXSW to deliver some sandwiches, and maybe start up a couple of donation boxes for shelter? After all SXSW takes place in these people’s homes, in the very places where these people usually sleep: If we are going to push them out of sight can’t we at least keep their needs in mind?

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